


Curiouser and Curiouser

by interlude



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Wonderland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-04-09
Packaged: 2017-12-07 23:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/754385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interlude/pseuds/interlude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To a stubborn and lost little girl, the Cat once said, "We're all mad here." And oh, how true that was.</p>
<p>Wonderland as a country.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curiouser and Curiouser

It is Head Cutting Day again. He is told so by The Cat. (That’s it’s real name: just The Cat, nothing more, nothing less. But, “Cheshire Cat,” She called it and “How does a cat smile?” She asked; Cheshire is a sort of funny name - like ‘Alice’ - but it does have a nice little ring to it and it just sticks. But he still calls him ‘Cat.’ Force of habit, he supposes.)

(And why wouldn’t a cat smile? How silly a question.)

And so he rubs his neck idly, ignores the tingle and tickle that comes with Head Cutting Day, asks, “What has angered Queen this time?” (Queen is not her real name. Her real name is something normal and ordinary and it starts with an ‘R’, he thinks, but he doesn’t quite remember.)

He wonders if it’s Croquet. It’s usually Croquet.

When it’s not Stolen Tarts or White Roses.

 

 

There is no other land that he knows of. To the east is Wonderland. To the west is Wonderland. Wonderland to the north and south. To his knowledge, the only land there has ever been has been Wonderland.

Oh, but wait now. “I come from England,” She said once, and then when She left she went back there.

So there is England too.

(But he doesn’t know where it is if it’s not to the East or the West or the North or the South; it’s not beyond the White Castle, or the Red, or even the one of Hearts. And it’s not past the sea. Or maybe it is?)

 

 

England is interesting. (He’s never met England, of course; he could be very dull; she could be very dry; but the idea of England is interesting indeed.)

He starts to wonder what England likes. What England does. Is England like he, he wonders? Does England have Queens, who cut off heads of the people on Head Cutting Days? Does England have Cats? (Or Cheshire Cats, perhaps?) Or Hatters? Or Tea Parties?

Perhaps the Unicorn. Would England like his Unicorn?

Yes, he decides. (Because he wants to know and not guess; even if it means he makes it up.) England would like his Unicorn very much.

And his Lion. And his Mockturtle and his Walrus and his White Rabbit with the pocket watch and the waistcoat.

But most of all, he decides, England would like his Tea Parties.

So he writes up an invitation -

 

_Dear England, friend and fellow Land that you are_

_Come around at Five in the Aftermiddayhours for Tea and Blueberry scones._

_And Un-Birthday Cake. (Unless it’s your birthday, he adds, in case England is unaware of the rules.)_

_\- Wonderland_

 

(Who gives it to the Frog Doorman - because he knows no ‘England’ - who gives it to the Duchess - for surely she, as important as she is, will know - who gives it to the (Cheshire) Cat, who laughs with a wide, half-moon smile and gives it to the Hatter who sticks it in his Teacup during Aftermiddayhours Tea to sweeten the taste when they run out of sugar and then forgets he put it there.)

And at Five in the Aftermiddayhours on the next Head Cutting Day, he sits at a table and pulls up a chair for his guest. He makes small talk, asks of Alice and how she is (“she was queen here once, you know; ah, but perhaps she is queen in your Land?”) and asks if England likes his/her tea with one lump or ten, and perhaps just a dash of butter if he/she is feeling daring for it is nice but such a strong taste, and then asks “oh, do you like my Unicorns?” just to be sure.

(And he keeps talking to an empty chair, answering for England and laughing at the untold jokes the other Land tells. He’s a little lonely, you see, and a Make Believe England is better than a Very Real Noland.

And he never claimed not to be mad.)


End file.
